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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5705980" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon Magazine Issue 250: August 1998</u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 4/8</p><p></p><p></p><p>The dimernesti: Having just upgraded a whole bunch of monsters to PC's in AD&D, now it's time to update the sea elves of Krynn to the SAGA system. And hey ho, despite the supposed departure of magic from the world, things haven't changed much for them. They've had the same kinds of hassles that Ansalon had to deal with Dragon Overlords, but managed to overcome them. And their shapeshifting ability remains fully functional, showing it's an innate power rather than linked to the old form of magic. So this is quite a conservative conversion, changing as little as they can get away with given the massive alterations around them. A mere two years on, and the backpedalling is already very apparent. I'm left wondering how much longer they'll do any coverage on it, and if any new elements will be introduced over the course of those articles. Because this really isn't grabbing my attention. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Warships of the sea: Time for another delve into the real world, old skool style, with extensive lexicons, pretty cutaway diagrams, and lots of crunch. This is one aspect of bringing back the old style features that I fully approve of. Actually, we have had a book on this fairly recently, and this builds upon that, providing stats for ships from centuries after the books medieval cutoff point. Which of course means pretty substantial power creep, but that's the real world for you. Statistically, this is a bit dry, but it more than makes up for it with the excellent presentation and use of colour. It seems like they're finally getting over the novelty and teething problems of their computer editing programs and turning it to better support the articles. Overall, this is one of those articles that's fairly specialised, but pretty invaluable if you do want to cover it's topic in your game. Still, it's no cardboard castle. I know you're trying to be more careful with your money and production costs, but it is the 250th issue. You could stretch a little bit for the occasion. </p><p></p><p></p><p>The world of the mechalus: Our Alternity material this month is a good 10 pages long, and another article that feels like it's trying to be a special feature, but couldn't quite get the right degree of epicness up. Shoulda gone for one 20 page one instead, and you'd definitely have my attention. Instead, this feels like a mini splatbook for the race. Which was cool in the early 80's when Roger Moore was doing them, but now we have thousands of full length splatbooks from various companies competing for our attention, it's not so impressive. Still, it has more new crunch than some splatbooks (White Wolf, I'm looking at you) and a reasonable amount of setting detail squeezed in. However, this goes to show how far behind D&D Alternity is, and by trying to compete in the same ballpark in an established market, it's setting itself up to struggle. And the cybertech seems decidedly dated only a decade later, given the rise of wi-fi and mobile communication devices, so the sci-fi in this article hasn't aged well at all. In the end, this article feels like a bit of a quaint curiosity, less contemporary than some articles decades earlier. And since I don't have much nostalgia for the late 90's, certainly not for the computer technology of the era, I can't say this excites me at all. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Sunken Fortunes: Back to the in theme articles, with a little piece on what kind of treasure you can find underwater. Salt water in particular is very harsh on all kinds of materials, reducing many metals to a pitted mess in no time, and rotting away organics. This also means that while there may be the equivalent of dungeons down there, they may not be as stable, and you have to pay more attention to the 3D aspect of layout design. Still, gold, gemstones and ceramics survive the depths untarnished, so there are some very valid reasons to go and recover lost treasures, and that's not even getting into anything underwater races might create. So this starts off fairly realistic, and then introduces the fantastical elements and solutions afterwards, allowing you to dial up the level of cinematicness by introducing the new spells and item quirks. It contains information I haven't seen in the magazine before, and delivers it in a no-nonsense style. There's definite value in knowing what valuables you can realistically include in your underwater games. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Fiction: Dedrak's quest by Tracy Hickman. In issue 200 we had fiction by Margaret Weis. Here we have the other big name of Dragonlance in a bit of fiction that almost fits into one of their established worlds, but not precisely. A story starring dragons, who have gnome servants, but haven't seen humans in ages, and now regard them as a kind of boogeyman? That has quite a lot in common with Council of Wyrms. But the specifics are subtly different, and the tone is both whimsical and contains a strong moral message. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given his previous form. The fact that he's also writing sci-fi books at the moment is also apparent, with a magitech underpinning to the setting. Overall, I think I enjoyed this, as it does have a pretty good story and characters, despite being built around the obvious Aesop. The magazine could do a little more tackling of social issues than it does.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 5705980, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon Magazine Issue 250: August 1998[/U][/B] part 4/8 The dimernesti: Having just upgraded a whole bunch of monsters to PC's in AD&D, now it's time to update the sea elves of Krynn to the SAGA system. And hey ho, despite the supposed departure of magic from the world, things haven't changed much for them. They've had the same kinds of hassles that Ansalon had to deal with Dragon Overlords, but managed to overcome them. And their shapeshifting ability remains fully functional, showing it's an innate power rather than linked to the old form of magic. So this is quite a conservative conversion, changing as little as they can get away with given the massive alterations around them. A mere two years on, and the backpedalling is already very apparent. I'm left wondering how much longer they'll do any coverage on it, and if any new elements will be introduced over the course of those articles. Because this really isn't grabbing my attention. Warships of the sea: Time for another delve into the real world, old skool style, with extensive lexicons, pretty cutaway diagrams, and lots of crunch. This is one aspect of bringing back the old style features that I fully approve of. Actually, we have had a book on this fairly recently, and this builds upon that, providing stats for ships from centuries after the books medieval cutoff point. Which of course means pretty substantial power creep, but that's the real world for you. Statistically, this is a bit dry, but it more than makes up for it with the excellent presentation and use of colour. It seems like they're finally getting over the novelty and teething problems of their computer editing programs and turning it to better support the articles. Overall, this is one of those articles that's fairly specialised, but pretty invaluable if you do want to cover it's topic in your game. Still, it's no cardboard castle. I know you're trying to be more careful with your money and production costs, but it is the 250th issue. You could stretch a little bit for the occasion. The world of the mechalus: Our Alternity material this month is a good 10 pages long, and another article that feels like it's trying to be a special feature, but couldn't quite get the right degree of epicness up. Shoulda gone for one 20 page one instead, and you'd definitely have my attention. Instead, this feels like a mini splatbook for the race. Which was cool in the early 80's when Roger Moore was doing them, but now we have thousands of full length splatbooks from various companies competing for our attention, it's not so impressive. Still, it has more new crunch than some splatbooks (White Wolf, I'm looking at you) and a reasonable amount of setting detail squeezed in. However, this goes to show how far behind D&D Alternity is, and by trying to compete in the same ballpark in an established market, it's setting itself up to struggle. And the cybertech seems decidedly dated only a decade later, given the rise of wi-fi and mobile communication devices, so the sci-fi in this article hasn't aged well at all. In the end, this article feels like a bit of a quaint curiosity, less contemporary than some articles decades earlier. And since I don't have much nostalgia for the late 90's, certainly not for the computer technology of the era, I can't say this excites me at all. Sunken Fortunes: Back to the in theme articles, with a little piece on what kind of treasure you can find underwater. Salt water in particular is very harsh on all kinds of materials, reducing many metals to a pitted mess in no time, and rotting away organics. This also means that while there may be the equivalent of dungeons down there, they may not be as stable, and you have to pay more attention to the 3D aspect of layout design. Still, gold, gemstones and ceramics survive the depths untarnished, so there are some very valid reasons to go and recover lost treasures, and that's not even getting into anything underwater races might create. So this starts off fairly realistic, and then introduces the fantastical elements and solutions afterwards, allowing you to dial up the level of cinematicness by introducing the new spells and item quirks. It contains information I haven't seen in the magazine before, and delivers it in a no-nonsense style. There's definite value in knowing what valuables you can realistically include in your underwater games. Fiction: Dedrak's quest by Tracy Hickman. In issue 200 we had fiction by Margaret Weis. Here we have the other big name of Dragonlance in a bit of fiction that almost fits into one of their established worlds, but not precisely. A story starring dragons, who have gnome servants, but haven't seen humans in ages, and now regard them as a kind of boogeyman? That has quite a lot in common with Council of Wyrms. But the specifics are subtly different, and the tone is both whimsical and contains a strong moral message. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given his previous form. The fact that he's also writing sci-fi books at the moment is also apparent, with a magitech underpinning to the setting. Overall, I think I enjoyed this, as it does have a pretty good story and characters, despite being built around the obvious Aesop. The magazine could do a little more tackling of social issues than it does. [/QUOTE]
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